The Paint Bucket

Tommy Martin came home from a year of backpacking around the world, took off the suit he had worn selling menswear at JC Penney and planning other people's money at American Express, and put on his comfiest pair of jeans. He was approaching thirty and had not found his purpose yet. He found it in a paint store.

A business degree, a philosophy degree and a tint machine

In college he studied business management and philosophy, two subjects that still fascinate him and neither of which points in any obvious way toward a career behind a paint counter. Then he found himself managing one, and he loved it. The business education went straight into operations. The philosophy went into how he ran the place, because a store, in his reading of it, is a way to help members of the community achieve their visions, whether that is a farmer building a new barn or a homeowner renovating a kitchen. More than three decades later he is both the manager and the owner of The Paint Bucket in Culpeper, Virginia, and he still enjoys every second of it.

Nobody walks in for paint

Martin is laser-focused on his customers, which at The Paint Bucket means something more specific than being friendly. Nobody comes in for paint alone; they come in to bring an idea to life, so he and his team work to understand the goal first and then recommend the products and the practices that will get them there. Afterwards they follow up. Did the project turn out the way you pictured it? What would serve you better next time? That follow-up is where a transaction stops being a transaction.

"I view our transactions as community-building efforts rather than financial exchanges. If we focus on empowering our community, the money will follow."

Three systems in three decades

The way people shop keeps changing as technology changes, and Martin's view is that a store has to change along with it. Over more than three decades in the trade he has run three different point of sale systems, and none of them kept up with the times the way Rundoo has. The Paint Bucket moved all of its software onto Rundoo when it went live in January 2023, and one capability stands well above the rest for him.

"Of every system I have looked at, Rundoo is the first I have seen that puts a Customer app in our customers' hands. This has transformed our customer experience by providing the convenience and immediate access to information that people today expect when they shop."

What the walls remember

Because Rundoo imports all of a store's historical sales data, a Paint Bucket customer opening the app can see every color and every product they have ever bought there, which means they no longer have to call the store to find out what is on their walls. It is a small thing that happens over and over across a year, and handing it back to the customer is the sort of convenience people now take for granted everywhere else they shop. Martin wants a technology partner that stays flexible, and by his count Rundoo has made more improvements since his go-live than his previous systems made in years.

A collective, not a competition

For a man who owns a paint store, Martin spends a striking amount of time thinking about everyone else's paint stores.

"Independent paint stores like ours are not in competition with each other. We are a collective that can help one another navigate the changing economy."

That is the philosophy degree talking, and on the evidence of a store that has spent more than thirty years turning customers into neighbors, it is sound business management too. Martin is always glad to meet other paint store owners, so if his story resonates, he would like to hear from you.